Tommy Crawford

The safety of our state depends on it. In the wake of a domestic terror attack, Creon becomes king. In the name of national security he forbids burial of the insurgents, including his nephew Polyneices. His niece Antigone publicly defies Creon’s edict and chooses to bury her brother, come what may. Set in a mythic land halfway between ancient Thebes and Washington D.C., this contemporary adaptation of Sophocles’s Antigone asks which is more important: the laws of man or the laws of the gods? In a post 9-11 world of drone strikes, the threat of chemical warfare, and the constant buzz of the media, what impossible moral decisions do we ask our leaders to make every day? And when faced with the choice between what is right and what is legal, between our country and our family, between taking a stand and finding a compromise, what would we do?

The Burial at Thebes
by Seamus Heaney
Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre (UCSD / La Jolla Playhouse)
November 12 - 22, 2014
Directed by Sarah Elizabeth Wansley
Original Songs by Tommy Crawford

Scenic Design by Lily Bartenstein
Costume Design by Janet O'Neill
Lighting Design by Bo Tindell
Sound Design by Andrew Vargas
Media Design by Ryan Brady

Photos by Jim Carmody

Tommy wrote and performed an original score on guitar and 15-string lyre. Listen to demos of two of the songs. 

Over and Over Again and Some Us

Music and Lyrics by Tommy Crawford

Engineered by Andrew Vargas at University of California, San Diego